Top 10 Interesting facts about Sundar Pichai

Sundar Pichai, present CEO of Google, was born in Tamil Nadu, India. He graduated in Metallurgical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, holds a M.S degree in Material Sciences and Engineering from Standard University and MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

In this post, we look at some less known but interesting facts about Sundar Pichai.

1. He was born in Chennai and did his schooling in PSBB Jawahar Vidyalay. He belonged to a modest family where his dad managed a warehouse that made electric components. Now, his annual salary is about US $150 million and net worth about US $1.05 billion.

2. He studied engineering in Metallurgy, which has no relation with IT, and even dropped out of work as an engineer. Then, he did MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania which changed his fortunes.

3. Pichai was awarded the Siebel Scholar and Palmer scholer at the University of Pennsylvania, and was also the silver medalist at IIT Kharagpur.

4. Now, he has to live in a sophisticated multinational mode, but he was a sports freak during his school times as he was a soccer and chess lover, but even more a cricket fan. He was also captain of his school cricket team.
5. On his arrival at Google in 2004, Pichai suggested the idea of a new browser. The idea was not taken seriously earlier, but now it has proved to be the leading web browser in the world. He is also the backbone of creating Google Drive, Gmail App and Google Video Code.

6. He joined an elite list of Indians who lead world companies like Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Indira Nooyi (Pepsi), Francisco D’Souza (Cognizant), Shantanu Narayen (Adobe), etc.

7. His exceptional leadership in developing 3 new versions of the Android mobile operating system, Jelly Bean, KitKat and the latest, Lollipop, captured 65% of the America’s smartphone market which made him good choice for CEO. Also it is believed that Twitter tried to employ Pichai in 2011 but Google paid him a boggling $50 million to stay back on his job in Google.

8. He owns a sharp-brain as he has an extraordinary numerical recalling ability and can easily remember any number dialed.

9. Pichai is known for his soft-spoken, diplomatic nature. In 2013, he accompanied Larry Page and Google CBO Nikesh Arora to tour a Samsung factory in South Korea to help build Google’s relationship with its partner.

10. He is married to his love Anjali, whom he dated in India before she joined him in the United States. Sundar and Anjali both were from IIT Kharagpur and during the final year he proposed her.The couple have a son and daughter.